Sotetsu 10000 series

Data (as of 6 Jul 2024)

History

Sotetsu has been developing its own trains with unique features, but the company had introduced rolling stock based on JR East's commuter train in the 2000s, to reduce costs. The 10000 series is based on JR East E231 series (commuter-train group). Three ten-carriage units and five eight-car units were introduced in total, and their bands were initially green and yellow, but they were changed to blue and orange by 2009.

In 2020, a ten-car unit was refurbished and repainted to YOKOHAMA NAVYBLUE livery. However, Sotetsu has suspended dramatically refurbishing other units. Traction and lights of another ten-car unit were replaced with new ones in 2021 (and now looks almost identical to 11000 series), but it is not clear when of even if the repainting resumes.

Current Operations & Future Prospects

The 10000 series are used on the entire Sotetsu network, but not often on Sotetsu Shin-Yokohama Line and never for through-services. The refurbishment programme is supposed to take place until late-2020s but there is very little progress since 2021.

Photos

The refurbished unit (YOKOHAMA NAVYBLUE).

Sotetsu has been refurbishing other 10000 series units since 2021 without repainting, making it extremely difficult to distinguish them from 11000 series.